Predictability of Job-Satisfaction: An Analysis from Age Perspective

Bhattacharya, Anshuman, Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is commonly interpreted as the intrinsic sense of accomplishment emerged from performing tasks while carrying out one's contractual obligations. Locke (1969) defines job satisfaction as, "Pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job as achieving or facilitating the achievement of one's job values." The appraisal is based primarily on core job characteristics comprising skill variety, task identity, and task significance, and on critical psychological states that include experienced meaningfulness of the work and knowledge of actual results of the tasks. These parameters determine the resultant pleasurable state of the individual (Hackman & Oldham 1976). Korman, Greenhaus and Baden (1977), however, define the feeling as, "the level and direction of a worker's emotion and effect toward a job and job situation." Their definition points towards measurable nature as well as directional (positive/negative) character of the construct. They also study its linkage with individual performance and collective morale of the employees.

Job satisfaction is the outcome of convergence of individual expectations and perceived accomplishments from different facets of the job. The more is congruence between expectation and actual accomplishments stemming from a job, the greater is the satisfaction derived from it. When the feeling is stemmed from the situation as a whole, it is termed as global satisfaction (Francis & Milbourn Jr. 1980:70). Since the proposed study is all about job, the distinction between work and job should be made clear at the very beginning. Work, in occupational context, is a wider concept than job. Warr, Cook, and Wall (1979) refer the term job to the tasks undertaken in a particular setting, whereas work is taken to cover job more generally. Francis and Milbourn Jr. (1980:11) define a job as "a collection of individual tasks that a worker performs. It is the formal link with the organization and an important part in the formation of individual's work role". Kanungo (1982) observed satisfaction with job as a function of job's capacity to satisfy one's present needs, whereas satisfaction with work as a normative belief about value of work in one's life and is a function of one's past cultural conditioning or socialization. Janssen et al. (1999) identified four characteristics of work that render satisfaction to the workers. These are work content, working conditions, labour relations and conditions of employment. Weiss and colleagues (1967:1), however, identified a set of twenty aspects that affect satisfaction from one's job. These are:

1. Ability utilization: The chance to do something that makes use of my (the employee's) abilities;

2. Achievement: The feeling of accomplishment I (the employee) get from the job;

3. Activity: Being able to keep busy all the time;

4. Advancement: The chances for advancement on this job;

5. Authority: The chance to tell other people what to do;

6. Company policies and practices: The way company policies are put into practice (Procedural Justice);

7. Compensation: My (the employee's) pay and the amount of work I (he/ she) do (Distributive Justice);

8. Co-workers: The way my (the employee's) co-workers get along with each other (Interpersonal Justice);

9. Creativity: The chance to try my (the employee's) own methods of doing the job (Self-actualization Value);

10. Independence: The chance to work alone on the job;

11. Moral values: Being able to do things that do not go against my (the employee's) conscience;

12. Recognition: The praise I (the employee) get for doing a good job;

13. Responsibility: The freedom to use my (the employee's) own judgment;

14. Security: The way my (the employee's) job provides for steady employment;

15. Social service: The chance to do things for other people (Socially Altruistic Value);

16. …

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